December 6, 2009

Inside Kodak's Strategy To Beat Lexmark, HP, Xerox and Others

The inkjet market is a tough market to compete in. The margins are quite low and vendors count on consumers buying expensive ink jet cartridges to recoup their low cost ink jet printers. I've got a two ink jet printers in my home office - one is by HP (I love it) and on is by Canon.

When buying an ink jet something from Kodak would normally not cross my mind. But after going online to Staples.com or Amazon.com (my online retailer of choice) and paying way too much to refill my ink jets, maybe it's time to look at Kodak. But why?

Kodak claims that they will sell a machine with three attributes:

Kodak's value proposition directly addresses the top three unmet needs of the consumer when it comes to inkjet printing. The first is that ink costs way too much. The second is that the quality isn't good enough. And the third is that inkjet printers aren't easy enough to use. When we got to work designing our system, I remembered all the times that my customers, friends and family would complain to me about the cost of ink, among other things. I vowed to provide the consumer a better experience in each of those categories.

It's hard to tell who is right or wrong. And my guess is there is no right or wrong, it's probably more like what printer works best for you.

However, the next time you're looking for a printer, think about the cost of ink and then think about Kodak.

tags: ink jet printer , kodak | 0 comments